The study of gas phase ion–molecule reactions by state-of-the-art mass spectrometric experiments in conjunction with quantum chemistry calculations offers an opportunity to clarify the elementary steps and mechanistic details of bond activation and conversion processes. In the past few decades, a considerable number of publications have been devoted to the ion–molecule reactions of metal clusters, the experimentally and theoretically tractable models for the active phase of condensed phase systems. The focus of this perspective concerns progress on activation and transformation of important inorganic and organic molecules by negatively charged metal clusters. The metal cluster anions cover bare metal clusters as well as ligated systems with oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, among others. The following important issues have been summarized and discussed: (i) dependence of chemical reactivity and selectivity on cluster structures and sizes, metals and metal oxidation states, odd–even electron numbers, etc. and (ii) effects of doping, ligation, and pre-adsorption on the reactivity of metal clusters toward rather inert molecules.